Yeah, that link is pretty much hosed. Here is the actual page on the WHDH website.
The picture Dooku linked to is an old one, I think. As is the one on the WHDH website. If you watch the video on that page you can see her looking out of the window of a car.
If they perceived her as Middle Eastern, that’s all that matters.
Since when does someone pissing on the floor make people think “terrorist” or “al Qaeda?”
Are you refering to the woman in the original OP here or the woman who shut down the airport today? If the latter, then yes…she certainly was perceived to be ME…she WAS ME (if Pakastan is considered in the ME). If the former though you really need to let that go…the woman was white. She looks white. I don’t think there was any perception of ME’ern heritage about her, least not from what I’ve read.
-XT
Asian, not Middle Eastern. But most people in the US probably think of Iran and Pakistan as being in the Middle East. They’re Muslim, right? 
All that matters in what universe? Suck it up, dude. You were mistaken. She was a white woman. Why can’t you just suck it up?
Thus my qualifier…for DtC’s benifit I was granting him that most American’s wouldn’t know the difference wrt Pakastan being or not being actually IN the Middle East. 
-XT
In the bigots’ universe. If they THOUGHT she was a Muslim, then it really doesn’t matter if she wasn’t.
[/QUOTE]
More info from CNN:
She is 59 years old and did, in fact, have a screwdriver, lighters and a bottle of liquid not supplied from the airline in her bag. She was muttering about Pakistan because she had recently visited there. There is zero indication that anyone thought that she was Middle Eastern.
Do you get the irony here? You’re the one who thought that she was a Muslim for fuck sake.
Do you have a cite anywhere that anyone THOUGHT she was muslim (obviously only someone blind woudl think she was from the ME)? How could you TELL someone’s religious affiliation by how they look is beyond me of course (since there are ‘muslim’s’ of just about every ethnic group on earth), but lets skip that. Can you please give a cite of someone who thought she was muslim? If not, would you please just drop this? If you aren’t up to standing up and admitting you were wrong, you could at least let it go at that point, no?
From the NYT :
Bolding mine.
When I think “flower child,” I think “White woman with long hair and sandals.”
Yeah, but he only thought she was a Muslim because Americans are typically bigots and can be counted on to only react this way if they think the person in question is Muslim. See, nothing *ironicalistic *about that at all!
I saying I think they might have inferred it from the fact that she was saying the word “Pakistan” and that she had a dark complexion. I don’t know what else would make people make the leap from “crazy lady peeing on the floor” to “HOLY SHIT! AL QAEDA!”
That’s how they’re smuggling liquids onto the plane nowadays.
Obviously someone thought she was al Qaeda. Hiw many aQ members are not Muslim? For that matter, we still don’t really know this woman was NOT Muslim.
Jesus fucking christ.
And the morons in the TSA and the whole security system wonder why so many people think that they can’t find their own asses with both hands.
First she had a screwdriver and lighters; then that was wrong, and she definitely didn’t have a screwdriver and lighters; now, it turns out she did have a screwdriver and lighters.
(Here are two more very recent stories confirming that: London Times ABC News)
Do these people even fucking consult with one another and get their stories right before they shoot their mouths off in official statements?
She has a dark complexion? I’ve seen her pictures and she looks white to me (course, I’m pretty dark myself so maybe I’m no judge).
-XT
Well you said that it didn’t matter if she was Muslim or not. It only mattered if she looked Muslim (whatever the fuck that means) or that people thought that she was Muslim. Anyway, that’s a red herring because you originally said that if she wasn’t white none of this would have happened and she was white.
You know, Dio, for years now I have read complaints about you and how much of a stubborn ass you are. This is the first time that I recall debating with you and it’s fucking exasperating. You made a rush to judgment and made a mistake. I’ve done the same thing before. Why can’t you admit it? Have you ever been wrong?
When I said this wouldn’t have happened “if she was white,” it didn’t occur to me that she could be white but mistaken for Arabic (I never said anything about “looking Muslim”, btw. I said “looking Middle Eastern”).
It doesn’t make sense to me that people would go into “Oh noes, it’s teh TERRORISTS” mode only because a woman was having a panic attack, even if she was peeing on the floor. I think there had to have been some other perceived ethnic cue or trigger which set them off. At first I thought she must have appeared to have been Middle Eastern. Now I think it must have been the word “Pakistan” (possibly in conjuction with a slightly dark complexion). That piece of information wasn’t available to me yesterday, but I still don’t think I’m wrong that a freak out by a white lady, in itself, is usually going to make people think they’re under a terrorist attack.